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June 14 — Over half of information technology and security executives, such as chief information
security officers, will lose their jobs due to inadequate cybersecurity reporting,
according to a Bay Dynamics
report released June 14.

The report highlights the communication breakdown between IT executives and boards.
Even though board members of large companies have begun to understand cybersecurity
risks and are training themselves to improve their knowledge, the information provided
may be too technical for some to understand, the report from the New York-based cybersecurity
risk consulting company said.

For example, 97 percent of board members surveyed said they know exactly what to do
or have a good idea of what to do with the cybersecurity information they are presented,
but only 40 percent of IT and security executives believe the information they provide
to the board is actionable, the report said.

Boards of major companies have added sessions to meetings about cybersecurity, and
members have found ways to educate themselves on the topic, Mitchell Silber, Senior
Managing Director of FTI Consulting, told Bloomberg BNA. Dealing with cybersecurity
is an “evolving process” for large companies, as technology changes faster than companies
can keep up with it, he said.

“In this day and age, board members realize”
that cybersecurity issues “have fiscal implications,”
Silber said.

Steven L. Caponi, a corporate and intellectual property partner at K&L Gates in Wilmington,
Del., told Bloomberg BNA that class action data breach litigation will push boards
to create in-depth cybersecurity strategies in the next two to five years, if they
have not already.

With the communication discrepancy between boards and IT executives, there is room
for improvement in the oft rocky relationship.

Companies must take into account the potentially substantial cost of replacing high-level
IT and security officials or of investing in a stronger cybersecurity risk communication
flow.

Technology Issue?

Directors may be viewing cybersecurity issues through the wrong lens.

Caponi said that boards assume cybersecurity is a technology issue, even though they
should approach it as a separate security topic. This misclassification can lead
to a communication breakdown with IT and security executives, he said.

“If it’s being treated as a technology problem, when the presentations are made, they're
heavy with technology terminology. If you aren’t familiar with those terms, you gloss
over,” Caponi said.

Board members are often focused on making information accessible within a company,
but cybersecurity is about restricting access to information, he said. Directors will
have to “bend the curve in the other direction” to take action on cybersecurity measures,
Caponi said.

Cybersecurity Knowledge Gap

Peter Gleason, president of the National Association of Corporate Directors, told
Bloomberg BNA that to combat the technology knowledge gap boards of some companies
are adding members with experience in data security.

Although technology-related businesses already have board members with network security
backgrounds, all companies today need to understand cybersecurity risks, Gleason said.
Employees with this background may help companies adjust to the particular cybersecurity
challenges they face, he said.

“Everything has to be adapted to that company and the situation that it is in,” Gleason
said.

If companies don't have cybersecurity-fluent board members, the IT and security executives
who report to the board must “keep them abreast” on network security risks with clear
presentations, Gleason said.

Ryan Stolte, chief technology officer at Bay Dynamics, said that although companies
are “headed in the right direction” in dealing with cybersecurity risks, they should
set cybersecurity standards.

“Companies need an objective, industry standard model for measuring cybersecurity
risks so that everyone is following the same playbook and making decisions based on
the same set of requirements,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ellie Smith in Washington at
esmith@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Daniel R. Stoller at
dstoller@bna.com

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